Amongst
all the prestigious languages that humans have developped during the
course of their history, appeared the Aramaïc language.

First
period

Arameans,
who were semitic nomad, had settled at the thirteenth century before
our era in Northern Mesopotami, then they spred in Syria and Lebanon,
founding small kingdoms, as in Damascus.At the eighth century, they were subjected by the Assyrian
king Teglath-Phalasar III and massively deported, and that contributed
to the diffusion of their language.

Aramaïc,
thanks also to Babylonian merchants, was propagated in Ancient Eastern
and prevailed. This language
of exchanges, diplomacy and culture became Lingua franca.
From 1000 to 612 BC, the last period of the Assyrian empire, it was
accepted by Assyrians as their second language after Akkadian, which
it supplanted it little by little. The Aramaïc alphabet competed then
ended to replace the cuneiform system.

The
most ancient documents in Aramaïc writings are issued from Northern
Syria, dated of the eighth century BC.

After
Cyrus's conquests, Aramaïc became the official language of the Achemenid
dynasty (539-330 avant J.-C.)

Second
period

In
Palestine, at the first century of our era, it constituted the language
of people, Hebrew remained the liturgic language and the upper-classes'
one. Jesus and his apostles spoke Aramaïc. In the Old Testament, some
parts of the Books of Esdras, Daniel, the Talmuds of Babylon
and Jerusalem were written in Aramaïc.

With the turning of Christian era,
in Northern Syria, the Aramaïc language had a new impulse with its
Syriac dialect . The Syriac writing
appeared for the first time in rupestral inscriptions, in the
city of Edessa (today Urfa, in the south-east of Turkey) and its region.

The
Syriac writing was alphabetical, it included 22 signs represented
consonants, it was written from the right to the left. It was developped
at the third century, and took the shapes of the so-called « estranghelo »
writing, (from Greek stroggulê, « round »).

Because
of theological arguments, the Syriac community divided itself during
the fifth century in Nestorians or Eastern-Syriacs, who lived in the
Persian empire, and Jacobits(Monophysits) or Western-Syriacs, settled
in Byzantine empire.

After
the Arabic conquest, at the seventh century, and the arabization of
the Middle-East, Syriac lost ground and influence.

From
the third to the thirteenth century, the influence of Syriacs, their
language, their religion, spred to Central Asia and China.

Third period

Nowadays,
the Aramaïc language is still spoken by about 2 millions people.
They are the Assyrians-Chaldeans and the orthodoxe and catholic Syriacs.

They
still use the Syriac alphabet.

They
are about half a million in Diaspora, settled in United-States, Canada,
Australia, Europe. The center of their language remains in Upper Mesopotamia,
where many cities and villages speak Aramaïc, scattered around the
Lake of Urmia in Iran, in the region of Tur’Abdin at the south-west
of Turkey, and in Syria, in the region of the river Habur.

In
1992, in Iraqi Kurdistan, in
the Department of the National Education a special section
was created for the teaching of the Syriac language. About thirty
schools and a college follow this program, officially teaching by
laïcs teachers.

About
thirty newspapers are regularly printed.

Then
the light of the Aramaïc language is still shining. But until when
?